Amazon just made a major change - and it forced me to finally cancel my Prime subscription

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Amazon just made a major change - and it forced me to finally cancel my Prime subscription

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Kate Taylor

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  • I quit Amazon Prime on Friday.
  • The company had announced that the price of a monthly subscription would increase from $10.99 to $12.99.
  • I wasn't getting my money's worth with Prime, but had been lulled into complacency. The price increase was the jolt I needed to snap out of it and quit the service.


I've finally canceled my Amazon Prime subscription.

I've been debating canceling my Prime subscription service for a long time, as I have almost certainly not been getting my $10.99 worth every month.

While most people celebrate two-day shipping, I'm an (annoying) person who frequently lets packages sit at my office mail rack for days. I don't understand or use Prime Music or Prime Photos. I don't own a Kindle.

I originally signed up for Prime because I could get a free month of the service. Then, for a long time, Amazon had me hooked on hope for the future.

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Prime Now seemed like an incredibly convenient way to get things delivered quickly - and something that I always thought I would end up using more. Two-day shipping was useful for holiday shopping. I love Amazon shows like "Catastrophe," "I Love Dick," and "Fleabag."

Perhaps most of all, I was excited to get discounts at the Whole Foods a few blocks from my Brooklyn apartment - a perk Amazon had promised for Prime members since the acquisition of the grocery chain.

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Then, on Friday, came the straw that broke the camel's back.

Amazon announced a price increase for Prime's monthly members from $10.99 to $12.99 a month.

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As soon as I saw the headline, I knew it was time.

I know I could have simply switched to a year subscription - something Amazon reminded me as I tried to cancel the service - instead of paying more. However, I am, quite frankly, terrified of commitment.

Plus, it was easy to allow the auto-pay to take $10.99 out of my bank account every month. Agreeing to cough up $99 for a service I didn't use that often simply laid bare how much money I had already wasted on Prime.

There had been another blow earlier this week that helped convince me it was time to ditch Prime. On Wednesday, Amazon announced it had canceled three original series - "I Love Dick," "One Mississippi," and "Jean-Claude Van Johnson". The cancellations seem to indicate a shift away from smaller, more artsy shows to focusing on bigger hits, like the upcoming "Lord of the Rings" show.

It felt reasonable to pay a little bit of money every month to watch shows run by talented writer-actors like "One Mississippi"'s Tig Notaro or "Fleabag"'s Phoebe Waller-Bridge. However, I already watched "Lord of the Rings". I don't need to pay $12.99 a month to watch its prequel.

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Phoebe Waller-Bridge wrote and stars on Amazon's "Fleabag."

Amazon raising its monthly price for Prime was the jolt that I've needed for a while to push me over the edge - and click the unsubscribe button. With the one-free month trial period and automatic billing, it's easy for Amazon to lull you into paying $10.99 a month.

And, honestly, figuring out how to unsubscribe is a process. I spent a few minutes clicking around random tabs until I finally Googled "how to quit Amazon Prime" and found the correct page. Then, I went through a three-step process.

Then, I was finally done. A weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I had an extra $155.88 that I would have otherwise paid out, month by month, to Amazon to spend in 2018.

Then again, if Whole Foods start rolling out its Prime loyalty program, I may need to see if I can get back on the one-month free bandwagon.

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